Mystic Falls, Vancouver Island

(click image to see on black)

For this week's image I'm taking you back to Vancouver Island, this is a shot of Mystic Falls, which pours out onto Mystic Beach. Mystic Beach is the first beach that one encounters on the south side of the Juan De Fuca Trail. While it isn't much of a hike in (30 minutes or so), it makes for a fantastic camping spot as the views are amazing and the sand is some of the best on the trail. For this shot I actually talked a friend into waking up at 4am, driving with me to the trailhead, hiking in the dark, so that we could photograph this spot by sunrise. A good friend in deed! Thanks Clint. It helped that he was a Geo-Cache Junkie and there happens to be Caches littered all over the Juan De Fuca Trail.

Again, I'm selling canvas prints right now so feel free to contact me if you want this on your wall. I actually had this canvas up at my home in Victoria, it turned out really nice. Before I moved I passed it onto my buddy who actually kissed his wife for the first time at this waterfall, how romantic eh?

Punchbowl Falls, Oregon

(click image to see on black)

This is an amazing waterfall, one of the most photographed as well. It is hidden back on Eagle Creek which is situated in the Columbia Gorge, sort of where I grew up. And for you avid cliff jumpers out there, the left side of this waterfall has a platform for taking great leaps. I took such a leap a number of years back, in my youth :). And I still remember the bruising my butt cheeks took. After I took my leap I had some onlookers tell me that just the previous week EMS was called out to haul some poor guy out who broke something from doing the same thing. Needless to say, that was my first and last jump.

I took this shot about a year ago, I forgot my fishing waders so my feet were freezing as the water doesn't warm up much at all in Oregon no matter what time of year. And behind me was my sister who was watching 3 kids so I could get the perfect shot. It was in the middle of the day, and amazingly I was able to get a descent shot that didn't have the highlights all blown out. However, I did have to take advantage of some HDR software, which I don't normally like to do.

This shot is a blend of 5 exposures which were brought into Photomatix, and then touched up and rebounded with an additional exposure in Photoshop.

Again, 16X24 canvas prints are available for $175. Contact me directly (montesjesse@psmail.net), or visit our website: http://montesphotography.com/